


No Fairy Tales

by Jicklet



Series: The Royal Disaster [1]
Category: The Royal Romance (Visual Novel)
Genre: Demisexuality, F/M, Gen, MC really needs to figure herself out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-06-28
Packaged: 2019-05-29 17:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 707
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15077816
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jicklet/pseuds/Jicklet
Summary: After the Coronation Ball, MC tries to come to terms with the life (and the messes) she's leaving behind.Spoilers through the beginning of Book 2, chapter 1.





	No Fairy Tales

Well. 

This is…  _ Awful. _

Hours before, she’d been anxiously anticipating possibly becoming queen. Now, she sat in the Cordonian airport, chin in hand, glumly waiting for her turn to board her plane back to New York. The fairy tale was officially over. 

She’d originally been sitting properly, a lady's habit that had become muscle memory during the last few months, but eventually gave up, slouching as much as she wanted. Who was she impressing? What, were the two guards watching her NOT going to support her for queen now?  _ Hah.  _

The first class passengers filed past her. She eyed her economy ticket, somewhere at the back of the plane.  _ Stingy royals couldn't even spring for first class, hmm?  _

_ What, you're surprised?  _ She groaned. The cynical voice in her head belonged to Drake. She slumped back in her seat, wondering if there would be alcohol on a Cordonian plane. She  _ really  _ should have taken his warnings more to heart. She'd listened, nodded,  _ uh huh court is full of sharks, I'll definitely watch my back. _ But even when the warning signs had been there… The missing lock, the mystery person who'd told Tariq she was into him… She should have looked into those. But hey, there'd been a lot happening. Between pie baking and boat rides and… Drake's confession… 

Her stomach squirmed. Honestly, probably a big reason why she hadn't followed up on the strangeness was she'd done her best to put that entire night out of her mind. It was self-preservation. She'd needed to focus on Liam. He was the entire reason she was here, to love him, support him, to lead the country she honestly had fallen in love with. All these months spent building her up to be the perfect queen. 

And yet, right before the coronation, she'd let Drake kiss her anyway. Because she was insane, apparently.  _ Why _ had she done that? She chewed her lip, the image of the longing in his eyes, the sadness in his voice all coming back to her. After all he'd done for her, she still couldn't give him her heart or anything else, but she could give him one secret kiss. 

And then Liam had told her he loved her. Her heart burst and broke all at once with the remembering. She hoped he was okay. He couldn't have believed the photos, right? He knew that she… She was a better person than that, that she… she  _ cared _ about him. 

It wasn't love.  _ Not yet, anyway! _ Her mind told her. It was really only a matter of time, right? A good, honest, man who looked out for everyone. A man who  _ deserved  _ to be loved. 

There were definitely butterflies. The times when she made him laugh and he became so damn  _ handsome  _ it made her heart skip a beat. Those feelings could surely turn into something real. She just needed time. She'd never been one to fall quickly. It had always been after months of friendship, of teasing and getting to know each other. This was all so fast, and… 

… too good to be true, in the end. 

She sighed again. Maybe it was for the best. 

Of all the magical moments that night had held, she found herself wishing she could go back to that stolen breath of air with Maxwell, laughing like fools together on the stairs. He'd promised they'd still be friends, regardless of whether she became queen or not, but… this had to be generously outside that boundary. Losing the season was one thing, getting thrown out in disgrace and shaming House Beaumont was definitely another. She wished she'd had time to say a proper goodbye, to apologize for letting them down, for losing them their one chance… 

Sinking deeper into her gloom (and her chair), she pictured Maxwell's disappointed face to punish herself. It made him look so much like a kicked puppy, she didn't have the heart to leave it on him, even in her imagination. His face shifted into his happier grin, the one he had when he came to wake her up and tell her about all the things she should be excited for. She could practically hear him calling her name. 

In fact--

She stood up abruptly. “Maxwell! Bartrand?” 

**Author's Note:**

> So Riley's definitely got some learning to do about loving herself and not just rewarding guys with love because she feels guilty. 
> 
> Don't be Riley, guys.


End file.
